


Ringing Quiet

by thebeastinsideusall



Series: Bucky Barnes Fics [16]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, FUCK, Infinity, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-04-30 03:23:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14487756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeastinsideusall/pseuds/thebeastinsideusall
Summary: When her body gave out her throat gave one last sound. A wailing cry of nothing but pure and utter anguish, so deep it settled into their minds almost as heavily as the resounding snapping of fingers.





	1. Thundering Quiet

**Author's Note:**

> My heart hurts....

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previous readers will notice I put the chapters in order with the movies so it reads better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Captain America - The Winter Soldier 
> 
> Captain America - Civil War

Thundering Quiet

She watched as the helicarrier fell from its perch amongst the air, buildings at all sides. The decent seemed to last a thousand hours and when it finally got close enough to see clearly, a flash of silver falling caught her gaze. There was no possible way she’d survive swimming around all the debris. Smaller explosions went off as the fuel and cargo caught fire on top and under the water. So much carnage.

Hidden in the tree line, watching with baited breath, her hands moved of their own accord. The stitched symbol of red on either shoulder was ripped clean off, the tracker in her cellular pulled and shattered under a rock in her hand the moment a helicopter flew over and showered the water with bullets. Leather and Kevlar jacket unfastened, ripped open and thrown back into the edge of the water. This was her chance, she was taking it.

She watched the water like an unblinking hawk, found the second tracker under her skin and clenched her jaw. Blood poured as her knife slit her own skin open, and the tiny black pill looking device was withdrawn from her skin. A barely there engraving is the damned symbol on its side, she tossed that too, into the water as far as her arm could manage the toss. 

Then she waited. Time stood still and moved forward as she crouched low in the trees and brush. Helicopters overhead and rescue vehicles blared sirens through the air. Finally, a mop of soaking wet dark hair came up from the water. Then a head and shoulders, silver arm dragging the heavy body of captain Rogers. Her breath caught, he’d.... he’d pulled the Captain out of the water...

She stayed where she was, the soldier most likely wouldn’t allow her to perform cpr on the drowned male. He glanced at Rogers only a moment before gripping his flesh arm and somewhat limping into the tree line and toward her. When his footsteps faltered at the realization she was there she moved into his sight, palms raised and weapons dropped at his feet. Confusion overcame his features but he picked up the gun and slid it into his holster.

“Handler?” She wasn’t, but the look of loss on his face. It was so profound, it was why she had waited. Wasted her chance to really run and waited for him, he was just as much a prisoner as she had been. He’d saved Rogers, the men he was before was in there somewhere. He had to be.. “Yes, we have to vanish, fast as possible. There won’t be a pickup, we’re on our own.” 

Turning her back to him made every single instinct in her screamed to keep him in her sights. She knew full well he’d slaughter her if he needed, it wouldn’t come to that, she would not let it. This was her redemption, her middle finger to the fuckers that brainwashed her into their nationwide cult. Taking their prize Soldier was the icing on the cake. And he followed her into the tree and the later sewers, she wrenched his arm back into place and he extracted the bullet from her thigh when her hands had started shaking too badly. 

When the states disappear and they’re hidden in the cargo hold of a no name plane headed to Europe, he starts to speak. It’s not much. “I remember him..”

“Good, hold onto that.” 

It’s months, months before she even realizes what’s happening. They’re no longer sleeping in different bedrolls. They’re meals are shared and there’s a trust between them. He understands she’s not his handler a few months after that. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because, if they’d had more serum, I’d be exactly like you.” He doesn’t ask again, ever. 

When the news cast comes onto the television, when he comes storming back to the apartment finding it empty he fights for everything he’s tried to regain. Because she isn’t there and there’s a new tier to fear in his body. Until he finds her eyes after he’s captured with Rogers, she’s fighting tooth and nail but when she meets his gaze, she stills and falls silent. Ready for a signal, a line, a shout, a shot. Anything, cause he knows, without a shadow of doubt, she fights for him. 

And even when he’s lost to the soldier, that Russian assassin inside his head and controlling his body, that part of him protects her with everything he’s got and they run. They run until he’s caught by Rogers and the new man, Sam, knocks her out easily because she’s so damn tired of fighting. As he wakes and finds he’s trapped, he only answers Rogers questions when he finds her a few yards away, glaring harshly at Sam. 

“Who is this anyways?” 

He just quirks a lip and grins as she slips the cuffs she in like it’s nothing and tosses them at Sam’s side. Her feet taking her over to his back and protecting his side where he can’t use his metal limb. 

“That’s my girl.”


	2. Soft Quiet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Black Panther
> 
> Avengers - Infinity War

Soft Quiet

“Are you sure?” His eyes are clear for the first time. And there’s a little smile to his lips she’s only seen late at night when only the moon lays witness to their bond. 

“Come’re.” He slips from the table, one arm enveloping her close to his chest and he lets out a small huff because the limb he’s hated for so long is gone, but now he can’t hold her like he wants to. 

“I’m a danger, I can’t be a liability anymore.” She shakes her head, small hands gripping his stubbled jaw and there’s a deep glare in her eyes. 

“Not to me, he listens to me...” she still talks like he and the soldier are different entities. They’re not, they’re one. But they both, they both know her. Refuse to hurt her. 

“Let me do this, let Princess Shuri see what she can do.” He cups her hand against his cheek, sighs into her gentle touch for a moment. Behind her the glass case slides open and the kind, young eyes of Shuri are encouraging. He can do this. 

“Don’t leave me.” It’s a whisper meant only for his ears and he stills, hold tight on the back of her neck as he crashes his lips to hers. They’d been careful, in front of anyone, to not show too much affection. But after everything that’s happened, he doesn’t care. They’re in a safe place. 

“I will always be here, always.” She closes her eyes and turns as he climbs into the case. Even Rogers asks him if this is what he wants. It has to be, there’s no other way. 

Asleep, frozen. She stares at the case for hours as Shuri and a few assistants get to work. They leave her alone until even Shuri can hear the rumbling of the woman’s stomach, sees the dried tear tracks on her tanned cheeks. 

“He is safe here. Why don’t you go eat?” She shakes her head, refusing to move. So Shuri leaves her alone. Okoye comes next, and she is much more lucky, as the woman leaves with the warrior. But instead of eating, she takes the grieving one to the grasses behind the palace. And throws a spear at her. 

She catches it, tests the weight and is unsure how to wield it. Okoye distracts her so well, it’s nightfall by the time her arms give out and she can no longer wield the spear. So days stretch on and on, she trains with weapons she’s never touched and she learns to use them nearly as well as the warriors who trained their entire lives to protect. 

They name her lioness. For her tanned skin that is golden in the sunlight, how she suns herself in the morning rays and soaks up the light as if it’s her life force. The yellow gold mane of her hair flowing about her like a lions pelt. The way she snarls and roars in her training, she is brash and uses strength to be brutal in her movements. She bares her teeth when close to defeat but than releases claws and fangs when cornered. Like a young lioness filled with rage and hunger. 

Morning comes one day and Okoye is late to training. It’s not the beautiful dark skinned warrior coming up the hill toward the waters edge where she sits on the rocks, soaking up her morning sun. Her back tenses, she knows that heavy presence like her own breathing. When she turns her head and the sunlight catches his pale skin and tousled dark hair. 

She tackles his one armed body into a hug so tight he feels how much her strength has improved in only a week. It’s only been a that long since he went under, Shuri worked a miracle. And he felt free, safe. 

The king gives them space, a hut on the edge of the water. Away from the palace and a distance from the sprawling city of Wakanda. He works on living with one arm, she works on focusing on things other than the smile on his face or the life in his eyes. “You gonna stare at me all day or teach me how to hold this thing?” He gins and tosses the spear at her, she tosses it back and he catches it. The children that come to look at the white people, they giggle and play. They name him the White Wolf.

Their reprieve is short lived. The king and his guard approach only a few days later, case laid out and a brand new arm set inside. Her heart stopped and skipped a beat, grip tight on his one hand as the calm bubble they’d had is shattered so easily. It’s gone, and his voice is harsher than it has been in a short while. 

“Where’s the fight?” His fingers grip her own before she starts to panic, he can feel it in the shake of her palm and the sweat of his fingers. 

“On its way.” After the king has left and the arm is attached, he’s flexing and testing the movements. She can’t look at him, she stares across the water and the clear sky. The oasis this beautiful place is will soon be shattered and destroyed. His hand finds her chin and pulls her focus. 

“I promise, I will protect you.” She can only nod, knowing it was true, he’d always be there. So they go up to the palace, they dress in vibranium laced armor and wait for Rogers to land with Romanov and the rest. She gives Sam a glare but they shake hands like friends, the glare is to make Him laugh and he does, pulling her into his side in a moment of affection in front of them all. She doesn’t care anymore. A war was coming. 

Steve finds her a moment later, he’s trying to say something but can’t find the words. “Captain Rogers, I know I was HYDRA, I know I was part of the team that kept him in line. But know I hated every second of my existence since joining them. I have spent every moment with him since the crash, if I wanted to hurt him, I would have.” He nods after a moment, clasped a hand on her shoulder, his palm warm, and gives a squeeze. 

The sky turns dark, ships land just outside the barrier. He gives her lips a solemn kiss, shoulders his gun and they walk toward the fight that’s moments from starting. Her hands hold the spear in her hands, an honorary warrior of Wakanda. She stalks beside him as they face the fight, together. 

White Wolf and Lioness.


	3. Ringing Quiet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avengers - Infinity War

Ringing quiet

Dust. Dust held in her fingers. A quiet surrounding the ones left. Dust, sifting over her blood stained fists. Vanishing with just the softest touch. 

Dust. Dust is all that’s left of him. 

Her body ached, fighting so hard. She’d lost track of how many strange deadly creatures she’d somehow killed. None of it mattered, he’d always protect her. He promised. 

Now he was... Her head couldn’t wrap around what she had seen, what she kept seeing over and over in her eyes. His soft exclamation to Steve, a step forward and... dust. 

Her voice was unheard at first, the others in their own private turmoils for minutes that seemed to stretch on end. A soft whimper akin to that of a dying animal that doesn’t wish for anyone to hear. But her anguish grew and mounted, becoming so ungodly unbearable she had no recollection of what her body had been doing while she was stuck in her own mind. 

Thrown to the ground, dust settled and vanished against her wet tear stained cheek. Body limp. Her gun clattered to the dirt and dust, ripped from her grasp. Steve’s wet blue eyes tried to find her gaze, but she wasn’t there anymore. Still trying to fathom the dust on the ground and this ache in her chest that felt worse than a knife through her lungs. 

Steve helped her to sit up, but her face never strayed from the black almost violet colored ash before her. Her gun lying in the middle of it, and her finger itches to pull a trigger even though the weapon was no longer in her hand. Arms held her, someone was sobbing against her shoulder. Their grip nearly bruising tight as she just, stared. 

Voice grew, a screeching suddenly ripped from her throat. A battle cry strong enough to startle the others into turning their gazes to her. Steve’s arms held her fast, having to pin her against his chest and lap with not only his arms but a leg around her hips. Her one free arm desperately clawing for the gun just out of reach. 

Their gazes turned away, unable to even muster the help to the only super soldier left. The ones who did watch weren’t at all surprised at what she was trying to do, being thwarted only served to anger the squirming female. They understood. Even Steve, he just couldn’t let her accomplish her task. 

When her body gave out her throat gave one last sound. A wailing cry of nothing but pure and utter anguish, so deep it settled into their minds almost as heavily as the resounding snapping of fingers. Steve held her tight, rocking her back and forth while he himself bit the inside of his cheek and tears were falling down the dirt on his face. 

He finally loosened his hold when she made a move opposite the lying gun. Letting her scramble from his arms and half crawl, half stumble a few few away toward a tree. Her stomach upheaving everything and her body shaking so much she couldn’t see a straight line. He turned his back, still knelt on the ground by the dark pile of dust. 

A gunshot sounded before he even registered anything. Steve’s body turned around as if in slow motion, his knee pivoting and the other foot planting to push off the ground. His intent to catch the limp woman as she fell into his arms. She was nearly weightless.

The blood poured from under her left ear, jaw slack and teeth bloodied. Red, slathered over her skin where Steve tried so uselessly to find a pulse. He held the body in his arms for what felt like hours, sobs wracking his chest as one of his hands reached out and grasped at the dust by his thigh. 

He couldn’t save Bucky. He should have been able to save the love of Bucky’s life... he couldn’t do either. He should have known she would follow Bucky, she’d never leave his side. Not even death could stop her. His hand found the gun her lifeless fingers had released and he held it in a shaking palm. And crushed it in his grip.


	4. Question

Would anyone want to see an actual story with this? I was thinking maybe ten full length chapters?

**Author's Note:**

> I can’t. I can’t deal. ...


End file.
